


Soft Pillows and Warm Hearts.

by theatergirl06



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Also a bit of angst., But mostly fluff!, Fluff fluff fluff fluff!, Friendship fluff!, Gen, fluffy ending!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:41:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23798650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theatergirl06/pseuds/theatergirl06
Summary: Two old friends reconnect over a rainy day and a hard night.
Relationships: Catherine of Aragon & Jane Seymour
Comments: 5
Kudos: 63





	Soft Pillows and Warm Hearts.

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Mentions of death.

When the queens had come back, almost none of them had known who they were going to be friends with. Who they’d grow close to. Who they’d love.

Of course they all loved and would go to the ends of the Earth for one another. But each pair of queens had a special bond between them, and some bonds were just closer than others. That was common knowledge, a simple truth about any group of people. 

Anna, Kat, and Anne.

Jane and Kat.

Cathy and Catherine.

All groups of people that were particularly close with one another. All somewhat unexpected, or at least not expected, with the exception of Kat and Anna, who had been friends in their last life.

And then there was one bond that everyone had known was coming from the second they knew they’d come back. 

Catherine and Jane hadn’t just been friends in their last life. With the exception of Joan and Maria, they had been each other’s best friends.

Jane had been Catherine’s lady-in-waiting, and one of the only people who had stayed by her side until the end. Even after she’d been exiled from court, Jane had made it clear who she supported all throughout Anne’s reign as well as her own. 

So when they’d come back, the two queens had been downright thrilled to see one another. And on their first night, they’d stayed up late after the others were sleeping, talking about all the things they’d missed (and not missed) from their old lives.

That night, they’d promised to always have each other’s backs, no matter what this life brought. 

For the most part, the two Catholic queens had kept that promise. They’d always been there for one another when things got hard. They’d spend countless hours together, wandering around bookshops and cafés and yoga studios. They’d been each other’s emotional support many times.

_ And yet _ , thought Catherine as she stared out the window at the pouring rain, almost a year and a half after that night,  _ we’ve grown apart these past few months.  _

It was true. The past few months, the two had barely spent any time together. They’d wanted to, of course, but it seemed that time had just gotten away from them. Jane had become the “mum” of the family, as the cousins often liked to call her, and that job came with a lot of responsibility. She was the first one awake every morning, cooking, sewing, comforting, making coffee.    
Honestly, Catherine, a mum herself, couldn’t understand how Jane  _ did  _ all that work, yet never seemed to tire out or even come close to breaking down. Yes, the third queen had her moments, but they happened far less than the others’. Or maybe she was just trying to hide her pain, for the sake of her family. 

Catherine didn’t think that was a good idea, but she respected Jane’s decision. 

Still, though, she did miss her friend. She missed their discussions over cups of coffee and novels that the other one would hate. She even missed the yoga classes Jane used to drag her to.

Okay, maybe she didn’t miss those.

But if she’d learned anything since coming back, it was that being the kind of woman who took charge and got what she wanted could be a very good thing.

It was due to that fact that she was found awake half an hour early on one Sunday, just a day after she’d stared out the window at the rain. Jane found her in the kitchen, cup of hot tea with milk and sugar (Jane’s favorite) in one hand, and a corn muffin (also Jane’s favorite) in the other. 

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Catherine. Um...what is this?”

Catherine smiled.”Well, to be honest, I’ve...missed you. We used to spend a lot of time together, but we haven’t really gotten to lately, and I really wish that hadn’t happened, because I enjoyed that time.” She took a deep breath. “So I was thinking maybe we could go out today? Maybe go to a cute little café or look at old stores.”

Jane smiled back at her and took the muffin and tea from the Spanish queen’s hand. “Aaw, Catherine, I’d love to!”

And so it was that the first and third queen found themselves out wandering the streets of London with two cheap polaroid cameras, taking pictures of anything they found beautiful at 8AM on a Sunday morning. Some might find photography a boring pastime, but Jane and Catherine both loved it. Jane thought it was relaxing and lovely, and Catherine thought it was art. 

The hours flew by, and before they knew it, they were sitting in a diner, eating sandwiches and drinking iced tea with lemonade. Jane grinned as she placed her tuna melt back onto her plate.

“Thank you for doing this, Catherine. You were right, we haven’t seen each other enough these past few months. I’ve missed you too.”

Catherine felt herself fill with happiness. She loved having Cathy as a daughter figure, but she hadn’t realized until today how much it meant to her to have Jane as a best friend. She set down her chicken salad sandwich and squeezed Jane’s arm.

“Well, maybe we could try to keep doing this. Once every two weeks or so? I know it can get...um...chaotic in our apartment, with…”

Jane laughed. “Anne?”

Catherine grinned. “Yeah. But it could be nice to have a few hours to just talk and have a nice time together. No chaos. No responsibility.”

Jane looked deep in thought. “You know, you’re right. I can’t remember the last time I had a day for...myself, you know?”   
Catherine leaned back and took a sip of her tea. “Well, being everyone’s mum is a lot of work. I swear I don’t know how you do it.”

“Honestly, I don’t really know. I just...I never got to have a family. Now I have one, and...I just want it to be right. I want to take care of them.”

“Well, remember to take care of yourself, too.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

“All right. But if I ever catch you treating yourself badly, Jane Seymour, we will have  _ words. _ ”

Jane laughed. “All right. I’ll succumb to that. Now tell me what you’re reading this week.”

“Oh, you’d absolutely hate it. It’s this biography of a Spanish general. Horrible guy, but he had a very interesting life…”

As Catherine continued the book description, raindrops began to fall onto the sidewalk outside their little café, causing them to return to the apartment a little earlier than expected.    
The found the place in complete chaos. 

There was paint on every single surface in the living room, loud music was blaring out of Anna’s room upstairs, there was constant thumping on the ceiling, and in front of them were a very guilty Anne Boleyn and Cathy Parr, covered in paint from head to toe. 

Cathy crossed her arms over her chest. “I swear to god this is  _ not  _ my fault.”

Catherine looked over at Jane. For just a second, she thought she saw a strange flicker in her friend’s eyes, but she blinked and it was gone.

Jane sighed. “All right. The mop’s in the closet, we have five hours to clean up this mess and cook dinner. Let’s get to work.”

So they did. 

Catherine lay in bed later that night, laughing at the paint-covered selfies Anne had insisted she take. As chaotic and stressful as the afternoon had been, the morning had been well worth it.

Or so she thought. 

About two hours after she fell asleep, the first queen was woken up by the sound of screaming and banging coming from down the hall.

She bolted out of bed as quickly as she could, and sprinted down to Jane’s room, barging in without even knocking. 

She found the room completely torn up, shreds of paper all over the floor, everything from her walls on the ground, it even seemed like one of her lamps might be broken. 

In the center of the mess sat Jane, hands over her face, sobbing. 

Catherine raced over and threw her arms around her. She would never have hugged anyone that fast normally, but she knew Jane liked hugs, but, well...she couldn’t stand seeing her like this.

“What happened?”

Jane spoke in short bursts, gasping between sobs. “I had...this dream...and everyone...was dying...at the same time...and I couldn’t save you all, and it was  _ all my job  _ and  _ all my fault _ , and I...I couldn’t do anything...because it was  _ just too much.” _

She broke into sobs again, laying her head on Catherine’s shoulder. 

“And then I woke up, and...and I was just  _ so annoyed  _ at myself and  _ everything _ . What you said today about taking care of myself, I...I just haven’t done it, and the stress today...it got to me. I couldn’t help it, I tried, but…”

“Jane, listen to me.”

The third queen stared at her, blue eyes wide and shining. 

“It is  _ all right  _ to get stressed out sometimes. We love having you as our mum, but you should only ever do it when you want to. You take such good care of us, Jane. All of us. Even me, even when you don’t realize it.” She took a deep breath. “We may not have gotten all the time together we wanted, but you’re still my best friend. When you need me, I’m always going to be here to take care of you.”

Jane smiled. “I like it when you decide to be kind.”

“What?”

“I’m serious. So often, you have this hard exterior. And it’s great and badass and awesome, but...I also like the you that can hug me and let me cry on your shoulder and say things like that.”

Catherine laughed. “If you keep that up, that me is going away very soon.”

“Okay, okay.” Jane looked around her room and suddenly looked on the verge of tears again.

“Oh god. What a mess. I can’t sleep here. Guess I’ll be cleaning up…”

“Shut up, Jane.”

“Excuse me?”

“We’ll clean up in the morning. Take my bed tonight. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Jane gaped at her. “You’d do that?”

“Of course.”

Ten minutes later, Jane, exhausted, had fallen asleep on Catherine’s bed. The Spanish queen was in the middle of instinctively tucking her in when she heard a knock at the door. She turned and felt her face go very red when she saw Kat staring at her.

“I...I just wanted to check on Jane, but I guess…”

“She’s gonna be fine, but we could use your help tomorrow.”

“Yeah...yeah of course. It’s just…”

“What?”

“You tucked her in.”

Catherine smiled as she made her way to the couch.

“Of course I did, Kat. It’s what best friends do.”


End file.
